ThMn12-type phases for magnets with low rare-earth content: Crystal-field analysis of the full magnetization process.

Rare-earth (R)-iron alloys are a backbone of permanent magnets. Recent increase in price of rare earths has pushed the industry to seek ways to reduce the R-content in the hard magnetic materials. For this reason strong magnets with the ThMn12 type of structure came into focus. Functional properties of R(Fe,T)12 (T-element stabilizes the structure) compounds or their interstitially modified derivatives, R(Fe,T)12-X (X is an atom of hydrogen or nitrogen) are determined by the crystal-electric-field (CEF) and exchange interaction (EI) parameters. We have calculated the parameters using high-field magnetization data. We choose the ferrimagnetic Tm-containing compounds, which are most sensitive to magnetic field and demonstrate that TmFe11Ti-H reaches the ferromagnetic state in the magnetic field of 52 T. Knowledge of exact CEF and EI parameters and their variation in the compounds modified by the interstitial atoms is a cornerstone of the quest for hard magnetic materials with low rare-earth content.

Forced-ferromagnetic state in a Tm2Fe17H5 single crystal.

We report the attainment of the ferromagnetic state in an interstitially modified heavy rare-earth-iron intermetallic compound in an external magnetic field. The starting composition is RE2Fe17, which is the RE-Fe binary richest in iron. We concentrate on the Tm-Fe compound, which is the most sensitive to magnetic field. The maximum possible amount of hydrogen (5 at.H/f.u.) is inserted into a Tm2Fe17 single crystal. We demonstrate that in a magnetic field of 57 T Tm2Fe17H5 reaches the ferromagnetic state with an enviably high polarization of 2.25 T.

Magnetic ordering temperature of nanocrystalline Gd: enhancement of magnetic interactions via hydrogenation-induced "negative" pressure.

Gadolinium is a nearly ideal soft-magnetic material. However, one cannot take advantage of its properties at temperatures higher than the room temperature where Gd loses the ferromagnetic ordering. By using high-purity bulk samples with grains ~200 nm in size, we present proof-of-concept measurements of an increased Curie point (TC) and spontaneous magnetization in Gd due to hydrogenation. From first-principles we explain increase of TC in pure Gd due to the addition of hydrogen. We show that the interplay of the characteristic features in the electronic structure of the conduction band at the Fermi level in the high-temperature paramagnetic phase of Gd and "negative" pressure exerted by hydrogen are responsible for the observed effect.